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Waterberg, South Africa

A bed amidst the trees, a shower amongst the rocks, the site sits in a nature conservation in rural South Africa, where trees and shrubs, and rocks create the architectural backdrop for any home.

The originating idea was to root the bathroom into the rockscape whilst allowing the bedroom to float amongst the trees. The building is organized as a long thin building that allows it to fit snugly between the forest trees; the two chimneys are essential to the structure of the building and naturally ventilate the bedroom.

The building offers its inhabitants a bathroom with private views out over the planted courtyard, the bedroom, and the private lounge.

The cliff-side of the building comprises structural brickwork. Structural brick chimneys are then also built in the riverine forest portion of the site; this creates two structural elements between which we can span a timber bedroom.

This building attempts to touch the earth only where necessary; this allows for the ground below the bedroom to be completely accessible by kudu and leopard, and wildebeest while the roof creates additional habitat for vervet monkeys, genets, and baboons. 

The entire house is off-the-grid. Water from the planted roofs is collected and filtered through the forest.